Brand new project from Goran Hjertstedt, last seen
in Longplayer!A music reviewers job,
the same as it ever was, is to paint a picture with words that convince you
that an album either isnt worth a scintilla of your time or should rise to the
top of your must-buy list. So, we talk
about an artists influences and how he or she fits into the scheme of things
that matter to you and yours. Are the songs good, catchy, do they matter?Then, its up to you, and if weve done our
job, your next move is easy.Göran
Hjertstedt knows that making the next move
 the creative move, in this case  is never easy. His more than four decades
making music can be looked at as an extended ramping-up period during which he
soaked up the key attributes that attracted him to his favorite artists and led
to his new songs.Basically,
Göran has the same record collection as you do, which means that you and his
new songs will get along just fine.Although
The Grand Levé
fairly obviously shares cell structure with the music of Jeff Lynne, 10cc,
Queen, Tom Petty and other members of the usual suspects club, and traffics in
motifs pioneered during such periods as the 60s and 1700s (note the classically-inclined
first track, And Light Appeared, which straddles influences by either
consciously or subconsciously quoting Elton John), the artist Hjertstedt is his
own man, and this is his album.This
enticing mix of catchy, well-crafted songs knows how to command your attention.
All In The City, very Electric Light Orchestra in every imaginable and loving
way; Free, very melody-rich Tom Petty; and Yesterday Man, very pure pop by
way of Longplayer, lead the more than sufficiently well-appointed pack. The
mutli-retro Two to Tango, a bluesy drawing room number about love and dancing
that namechecks Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and What Am I Gonna Do (Lunar
City Heartache), a luscious, romantic mid-tempo ballad with sci-fi overtones,
are two more superlative melodic wonders. The alluring, closing instrumental, Memory
Lane, is perhaps the perfect ruminative end to these proceedings, marked by
lovely, expressive electric guitar lines that sing.When all is said and done, the record makes
its mark because its sound pictures, drawn with love and affection, tell an
affecting, collective tale. The results are nothing
less than a triumph for fans of melodic pop music. Same as it ever was, in fact.
 Alan Haber/PurePop.Radio.comGREAT!!

It's
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